Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Bo-Qing Xu
Tsinghua University, China
Keynote: Selectivity control of Au-catalyzed oxidation of glycerol in water
Time : 09:00-09:25
Biography:
Bo-Qing Xu received his BS in Chemistry at Jiangxi University (1982), Master (1985) and PhD (1988) degree in Physical Chemistry at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Academia Sinica. He started his career as a Professor at Dalian University of Technology in 1992, worked as a visiting scientist at Northwestern University (USA, 1995 & 1997) and Georgia Tech (USA, 1996), he moved to Tsinghua University in 1998. He has also worked as a research student at Hokkaido University (Japan, 1986-1988), a short-term visiting Professor at UC Berkeley (2002) and Hong Kong Baptist University (2003). His name appears on the Editorial Board of Applied Catalysis A-Gernal and International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, International Advisory Board of Acid-Base Catalysis Group (ABC). He works in the field of Heterogeneous Catalysis with main interest on the physical chemistry aspects of new catalytic materials and catalytic reactions. Zi-Fei Yuan is a PhD student in the Heterogeneous Catalysis Laboratory of Professor Bo-Qing Xu at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. She has published 2 papers based on her PhD work.
Abstract:
Oxide-supported Au nanoparticles are known as efficient catalyst for aerobic oxidation of aqueous glycerol (GL) under the presence of NaOH (base), with glyceric acid (GLA) being the main product. In the absence of NaOH or under neutral (and even acidic) conditions, however, the same reaction over Au catalyst would feature a specific selectivity for dihydroxyacetone (DHA) production. This proposed presentation will show firstly that in the absence of any Au catalyst the reaction rate and product distribution of the GL oxidation reaction dependents critically on the concentration of NaOH in the (water) solution, and disclose that NaOH is actually a homogeneous catalyst for the reaction. A well-developed Au/ZrO2 will then be employed to feature the characteristics of Au catalyst for GL oxidation under the presence of various amounts of NaOH, highlighting an important role of the solution basicity to the catalysis of Au in the GL oxidation reaction. To understand the effects of the support surface acid-base property on the Au catalysis, a series Au/MgO-Al2O3 samples, with widely varied surface acid-base property according to the composition (Mg/Al) of the support, are prepared and employed as the alternatives of Au/ZrO2 for the GL oxidation reaction. It will be shown that Au nanoparticles on the most acidic (least basic) support exhibit the highest activity for GL activation and highest selectivity for DHA production. Increasing the basicity while lowering the acidity at the support surface leads to continuously improved selectivity for GLA, at the expense of DHA. Discussion will be made to uncover the role of basic species/sites, either in the solution or at the support surface of Au catalyst, for the selectivity control of GL oxidation in water.
Keynote Forum
Naoki Sugimoto
Konan University, Japan
Keynote: Functions of nucleic acids with non-canonical structures
Time : 09:25-09:50
Biography:
Naoki Sugimoto received his PhD degree in 1985 from Kyoto University, Japan. After Post-doctoral work at University of Rochester, USA, he joined Konan University, Kobe, Japan in 1988 and is a Full Professor since 1994. From 2003, he holds a Director of Frontier Institute for Biomolecular Engineering Research (FIBER) at Konan University. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Nucleic Acids Research from 2007 to the present, a member of the Review Committee of Human Frontier Science Program (HFSPO) from 2008 to 2012, a Chemical Researcher of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from 2010 to 2013, and a Chairman of Division of Biofunctional Chemistry of the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) from 2011 to 2013. He received the Dr. Masao Horiba’s Award in 2004, Distinguished Scientist Award from ICA (International Copper Association), New York, USA in 2005, the CSJ (the Chemical Society of Japan) Award for Creative Work in 2008 and so on. His research interests focus on biophysical chemistry, biomaterials, bio-nano engineering, molecular design, biofunctional chemistry, and biotechnology. He has published more than 500 scientific papers and books.
Abstract:
Water is the major solvent component in living cells, and the properties of water in the highly crowded media inside cells differ from that in buffered solution. As it is difficult to measure the thermodynamic behavior of nucleic acids in cells directly and quantitatively, we recently developed a cell-mimicking system using cosolutes as crowding reagents. In this presentation, I will show how the structures and thermodynamic properties of nucleic acids differ under various conditions such as highly crowded environments and discuss the major determinants of the crowding effects on nucleic acids. The effects of molecular crowding on non-canonical structures of DNA and RNA such as quadruplexes that play important roles in transcription and translation are also discussed.
Keynote Forum
Daniel T Gryko
Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Keynote: Pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrroles – new electron-rich functional π-electron system
Time : 09:50-10:15
Biography:
Daniel T Gryko obtained his PhD from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1997, under the supervision of Prof. J. Jurczak. After a Postdoctoral stay with Prof. J. Lindsey at North Carolina State University (1998–2000), he started his independent career in Poland. He became Full Professor in 2008. The same year he received the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines Young Investigator Award. His current research interests are focused on the synthesis of various functional dyes as well as on two-photon absorption, artificial photosynthesis, excited-state intramolecular proton transfer and fluorescence probes.
Abstract:
Two-photon absorption (2PA) is a non-linear optical phenomenon with broad scope of applications. It has already been applied, or is under intensive investigation, in fields such as: optical limiting, multiphoton pumped frequency-upconversion lasing, polymerization-microfabrication, 3D-data storage, two-photon excited fluorescence etc. Recently we have discovered and optimized the first practical synthesis of non-fused pyrrole[3,2-b]pyrroles via domino reaction of aldehydes, primary amines, and butane-2,3-dione. Six bonds are formed in heretofore unknown tandem process, which gives rise to substituted pyrrole[3,2-b]pyrroles – the ‘missing link’ on the map of aromatic heterocycles. Unparalleled simplicity and versatility of this one-pot reaction, non-chromatographic purification and superb optical properties (including strong violet, blue or green fluorescence both in solution as well as in the solid state), brought these molecules from virtual non-existence to the intensively investigated area functional π-systems.
- Track 1: Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry
Track 2: Inorganic Chemistry
Track 3: Analytical Chemistry
Location: Olimpica 1 & 2
Chair
Ionel I Mangalagiu
Al.I.Cuza University of Iasi, Romania
Co-Chair
Maia Merlani
Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia